PENSACOLA — Donna Ridley’s dream of becoming an overseas missionary was lost when she was diagnosed with a degenerative spine disease.

But last year she had “a God idea” while getting customer service help on a Dell Computers 800 line.

“The guy I was talking to was in Ireland, and the call was costing me nothing,” she says. “The mission field was as close as my telephone.”

Ridley, who has never left the state of Florida, began calling 800 numbers of major companies for hours a day to evangelize customer service representatives in foreign nations. She pretends to have a problem, and while following the representative’s instructions she says things like, “Thank you, Jesus, for this day” loudly enough for the rep to hear. When her “problem” gets solved she begins praising God openly and immediately launches into her testimony.

“I’ll say, ‘God is so good. Do you know why I’m so happy? It’s because I have Jesus in my life. Have you ever heard of Jesus?'”

The service reps, trying to be friendly, often listen for as long as 3 or 4 minutes before they politely end the call.

“It’s like having a revival right on the line,” Ridley says. “Even if they’re thinking, ‘What a crazy lady,’ I know the gospel is getting through.”

Ridley calls herself the world’s first 800 Number Missionary, and raises support from family and friends to fund her efforts. She always offers customer service reps her email and website addresses and invites them to contact her to learn more about the gospel.

“If I can change one family in Calcutta, Dublin, or wherever, I will have fulfilled my calling,” she says.•